Busy section of Dundas Street closed downtown due to construction work

A busy section of Dundas Street will be shut down in the downtown core starting Monday to accommodate a lengthy construction project in the area.

The eastbound lanes of Dundas Street, from Bay to Church streets, will be closed until September 16 to allow for the replacement of streetcar tracks. Crews will also be restoring roads impacted by earlier watermain construction in the area.

One westbound lane of Dundas Street will remain open.

As a result of the construction work, Victoria Street will also be closed in both directions between Dundas Street and Dundas Square during the same time period.

"We have three phases to the project. We started in earnest the end of April and we are hoping to finish by the end of September. At this point we are about a month ahead of schedule," Michael D’Andrea, chief engineer for the City of Toronto, told CP24 Monday.

The project, the city says, will help reduce the risk of watermain breaks in the future and will improve the quality of streetcar tracks in the area.

"This is an extremely impactful project," D’Andrea said.

"We’ve used extended hours to further accelerate it and shorten the construction schedule but it is impactful, no question."

Crews will be working from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. over the course of the project. In an effort to reduce the length of the traffic disruption, some work will take place on a 24/7 basis, he said. The noisiest work, such as concrete breaking and removal, will not continue past 11 p.m.

D’Andrea said the road work is a "large project" that addresses the needs of three city divisions.

"(We) replaced a 100-year-old watermain for Toronto Water. We’ve got the TTC track work now for the TTC and we are also doing some road resurfacing and some sidewalk work for Transportation," he said.

"Coordination for these projects happens over a number of years. We started it about five years out for the coordination of this one project to integrated it all into one project and ultimately reduce the impact."

The city has placed signs along Dundas Street notifying drivers of the closures and traffic signal timing changes will be in place on parallel streets.

Alternate routes for drivers include Gerrard Street and Queen Street.

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Ongoing construction work is shutting down a busy section of Dundas Street in the downtown core for the rest of the summer.